Abstract
There are many reasons that motivate people to build online communities. The purpose of this study was to identify the topics that learners discuss when they are part of a computer assisted language learning course in order to answer the question “What are they talking about?”. We have examined an e-community of 618 students who were learning the Modern Greek language online. We analyzed their conversation topics directly from the discussion boards of the web-based course and sorted them into the pre-defined topic categories. The results of the study showed that during the first lessons of the course the students contributed more to social discussions which were unrelated to the course material. The reason of this outcome is that the students want to introduce themselves and meet their peers. As they progressed through the course’s lessons, however, their discussion topics became more course material related. The study ends with implications of the results and future research directions.
Highlights
Traditional learning methods have gradually shifted from individual learning to cooperative learning because of the ubiquity of e-Learning [1]
It has been shown that students prefer to contact their peer students rather than their tutor when they are struggling with coursework, facing difficulties in assessing facilities and understanding lectures [8]
The case study was an online course for learning the Modern Greek language, entitled Learn Greek Online (LGO)
Summary
Traditional learning methods have gradually shifted from individual learning to cooperative learning because of the ubiquity of e-Learning [1]. Students usually engage in Computer-Mediated-Communication (CMC) when they are stuck, confused, excited, have questions, or just want to meet other peer students and have off topic discussions with them [2] [3] [4]. There are many reasons that bring people together in online groups. These include but are not limited to hobbies, ethnicity, education, beliefs and just about any other topic or area of interest. Online peer support occurs through the use of Computer-Mediated-Communication. The significance of students learning from their study peers is increasingly being recognized by the e-Learning community. Online learning can foster a greater degree of communication and closeness among students and tutors than face-to-face learning [3]. It has been shown that students prefer to contact their peer students rather than their tutor when they are struggling with coursework, facing difficulties in assessing facilities and understanding lectures [8]
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